Warm Me Up! Thai Noodle Soup

Oregon winter has officially set in. I mean, it's 9:30 in the morning, and the temperature on my outdoor thermometer reads 37°. That's winter in my book.

I have a very cold house. It's great in the summer, as I only need to use the air conditioner three or four times a year when it's close to 100° outside. The downside is that when it's cloudy and cool, my house feels like an ice box. We start using the heat in October, although I would much prefer to drink hot cocoa and wear an extra layer, than live in the dry discomfort of forced-hot air heating. (Oh, how I miss my New Mexico in-floor radiant heat!)


Warming foods are also very comforting when we feel chilled to the bone. And Mary McDougall's recipe for Thai Noodle Soup (you'll want to scroll down to the third recipe on this page,) really hits the spot. Mark and I got to satiate our cravings for coconut-milk flavored Thai food, (Friday nights used to be dinner at Manola's Thai restaurant), but without all the fat. Mary uses almond milk and coconut extract instead of coconut milk, and Sambal Oelek (an Indonesian chili sauce), for a spicy kick. The recipe makes about 6-8 servings, so we have more than enough left over to make hearty lunches for us both today. And that's good, because like I said, winter has arrived here in the Pacific Northwest.

Oriental Pasta

Mark and I both enjoy the simplicity of many Asian-inspired dishes. A little ginger, soy sauce, and some gently cooked vegetables over a bed of rice or noodles make for a very satisfying meal.

I love this quick and easy-to-prepare Oriental Pasta recipe from The McDougall Quick & Easy Cookbook. You can find a similar recipe here on Dr. McDougall's website, where it's called Oriental Pasta Salad. In the dish pictured above, I used pad Thai rice noodles instead of buckwheat soba noodles, added baby corn, sliced red bell pepper and snap peas, and served it piping hot.

While culinary herbs are one of my passions, I've recently become more interested in medicinal herbs. So for something a little different, check out my latest article over at vegsource.com, and discover the power of the neem tree.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie and ... The Winner is ...

My very favorite thing about this time of year (aside from all of the spectacular foliage), is pumpkin pie! And not just pumpkin pie, but also pumpkin pie brownies, pumpkin pie cupcakes, pumpkin pie ice cream (hint to Turtle Mountain), and just about anything else that can be made with pumpkin and the dreamily aromatic combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. Inspired by this recipe I recently found at eatrundoyoga.com, I decided to try my hand this morning at my own version of a vegan pumpkin pie smoothie. The result was rich, creamy, and delicious, with just a hint of coconut and all the spicy goodness of pumpkin pie. My version is not only dairy- and gluten-free, but soy-free, too.


Ingredients:

2 cups So Delicious Coconut Milk Beverage (I used Original, but you could use Vanilla, too)
2 tablespoons agave nectar (or sweetener of choice, to taste)
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 ripe banana
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice -or- 1/4 tsp ginger and 1/4 tsp nutmeg and a pinch of cloves
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (use 1/4 tsp, if you are using vanilla coconut milk beverage)

Directions:

Blend all together, pour, and enjoy! Makes 2 servings.

The winner of three free Turtle Mountain product coupons is ... shakay. Congratulations! Your coupons are in the mail, and I hope you'll soon be enjoying more of your favorite So Delicious and Purely Decadent treats. Many thanks to everyone for your very delicious ice cream flavor ideas. Perhaps we'll see a few them come to fruition!

Creamy Spinach Pasta and Three New Purely Decadent Flavors!

I'm really loving my McDougall cookbook. Even though there are more than 300 recipes to explore, I tried some recipes that we enjoyed so much, I'm already making them again. One of these is this simple, yet very delicious Creamy Spinach Pasta. (In the link, it's called Spinach Pesto Fettucine–4th recipe from the top.) I made it with Mrs. Leeper's Corn Rotelli for my gluten-intolerant friend, Meryl Ann, when she was visiting me a couple of weeks ago. I think corn pasta is the best-tasting pasta around. And although it's expensive, I discovered that a 12-oz bag will go as far as a 16-oz box of semolina pasta. I know, it still costs a lot more, but I think it's worth it—especially for those who are wheat-intolerant, or if you're like me. I can't eat wheat pasta without feeling terribly weighted down and lethargic, so I avoid eating it.


Look how bright and colorful this dish is! And if you love pesto, this recipe is packed with creamy basil and garlic. But it's also low fat, because it's made without any added oil!

After such a delectable dinner, I wanted to treat myself to an equally tantalizing dessert. I treated myself to a small taste of the three new Purely Decadent Made with Coconut Milk frozen desserts. I had a spoonful of each!


The Chocolate Brownie Almond flavor was light, creamy, and chocolatey, just like the chocolate coconut milk flavor, but with tasty bits of almonds and brownie pieces. Cherry Amaretto had lots of nice big hunks of black cherries in a marzipan-like creamy base. It made me dream of how heavenly a pistachio-cherry coconut milk ice cream would be. Oh, Turtle Mountain, could you please do this one small thing for me?

My favorite flavor of the three is Turtle Trails. I surprised myself with this one, because it's not my favorite soy flavor. But the chocolate-coated pecans and caramel sauce blended beautifully in the coconut milk ice cream. It tasted light, fluffy, and rich, and I think my tongue left my mouth and took a short trip to nirvana.

Mark on the other hand, can stand to gain a few pounds, so he can always treat himself to as much ice cream as his heart desires. He chose Chocolate Brownie Almond for his first round. And as you can see from the photo, it's a chocolate-brownie-lover's dream!


So here's a new contest: Visit the Turtle Mountain website, and check out all of their amazing flavors. Come back here, and leave me a comment telling me what your dream flavor is. One creative person will win 3 VIP coupons good for any of your favorite So Delicious or Purely Decadent products! I can't wait to read your responses! Good luck!

Warming and DeliciousPlaintain and Pinto Stew

The history of the plantain can be traced to Southeast Asia as far back as 500 B.C. Alexander the Great brought plantains to Europe around 327 B.C. They made their way to Madagascar from Malaysia and India during the Trans-Saharan trade boom sometime around the 8th century. Along with yam, banana, and other food crops, plantain became an important factor in the prosperity and rapid expansion of the Bantu Kingdom of central and southern Africa around 1500 A.D. Portuguese sailors discovered both plantain and bananas in their travels to the African continent and populated the Canary lslands with their first plantations. It is believed that a Portuguese Franciscan monk first introduced the plantain to the Caribbean island of Santo Domingo in 1516. It wasn't long before the plantain made its way throughout the Caribbean and the Americas. Today, plantain is popular in many parts of the world, and is a staple in Latin American cuisine.



Plantains are cooked either when they are under-ripe and starchy or overripe and sweet. I don't care very much for the bland, starchy taste of under-ripe plantains, so I rarely eat them unless they are truly ripened, with the skin darkened to a deep yellow color that is covered with many black spots. Unless I get extremely lucky and find overripe plantain at my local Latin market, I may have to wait a week or more after buying plantains to prepare this tasty stew.

How wonderful to revisit one of my favorite cookbooks, Veganomicon and find that I only needed to omit 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil to make this a very low-fat dish. I also omitted the cilantro, as I think the flavors of the beans, tomatoes, peppers, and plantain really shine through without it. You can find the recipe here, along with a nutritional analysis.

I've Discovered that I Really Like Gumbo!

What exactly is gumbo, anyway? Several sources note that the word gumbo comes from the African Bantu dialect word, kigombo, for okra. The native recipe for kigombo soup, a watery melange made of fish, okra, and plantains, was first brought to the Americas by African slaves. The recipe was later influenced by a number of cultures including the Spanish and the French, evolving into what is now a thick soup made with an array of ingredients and spices.

When I found this low-fat vegan recipe for Cajun Gumbo, in The McDougall Quick & Easy Cookbook, it sounded so delicious, I had to try it.

I just love how bubbly, colorful, and flavorful my gumbo looked while it was cooking!


Since I've never eaten authentic gumbo of any kind, I'm not sure how close this dish comes to tasting like the Creole classic recipe. Nevertheless, the blending of spices, vegetables, and beans served with brown rice made a wonderful warming meal on a chilly autumn evening.


As the temperature continues to dip, I think we'll be eating a lot more of this dish over the next few months, because I've discovered that I really like gumbo! Do you?

Black Bean Sloppy Joes

Violins, please...I never had Sloppy Joes as a kid. It just wasn't one of the five dishes in my mother's repertoire. (Poor me.) So it wasn't until after I graduated high school and was living away from home that I discovered this saucy sandwich. It was love at first bite!

Now I realize that I've kind of been living under a rock for the last ten years—that's when The McDougall Quick & Easy Cookbook was first published. But what a wonderful surprise for me to find within its pages a naturally low-fat vegan recipe that closely mimics the sassy flavors I remember so fondly. It made me fall in love with Sloppy Joes all over again.


(Notice the cute jungle motif plate? I couldn't resist buying it when I found it at one a local thrift shop!)

While I don't usually reprint recipes from other people's cookbooks unless I either have the author's permission or have found the recipe online elsewhere, this recipe is already posted on at least a dozen other websites. So I hope you'll try it (if you haven't already, because unlike me, you don't live under a rock!) It's a very tasty quick-and-easy-to-prepare dish that both kids and adults will have fun eating.

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, diced
1/3 cup water
1 15-ounce can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
1/4 cup quick-cooking oats
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 T yellow mustard
1 teaspoon agave nectar (original recipe called for honey)
1 teaspoon chili powder

Directions:

Place onion and pepper in a saucepan with water. Cook, stirring frequently until the vegetables soften, about 5 minutes.

Mash beans with a bean or potato masher (do not use a food processor). Add the beans and remaining ingredients to the saucepan, and cook over low heat until heated through, about 5 minutes. Serve on toasted whole wheat buns.